Christian Unity

The Christian Chronicle recently posted an article about the decline of churches of Christ in the United States.

In the newly released directory, 21st Century Christian identifies 12,629 a cappella Churches of Christ with 1,578,281 adherents nationwide. Those figures represent 526 fewer churches and 78,436 fewer people in the pews than just six years ago.

Over at the One in Jesus blog, Jay has been commenting on the report and the decline which it documents. In his latest article he traces the roots of decline back to certain key 19th century figures in the Restoration Movement, influenced by the Landmark Baptists who were active in the same area of the country. Jay wrote:

What happened, I think, is the Movement absorbed a great number of Baptists from the same cultural pool that produce the Landmark Baptist movement in the 1850s — but with roots going back to the 17th Century.

I blogged similar thoughts back in 2007, focusing on the emergence of a hermeneutic based on the silence of the scriptures. It seems that the views brought into the Restoration movement from some exclusive Baptist groups gained influence in the second half of the 19th century, diverting the course of the Restoration Movement from its original goal to unify all Christians. These influences resulted in increasing intolerance toward any variation in beliefs. Controversies flared over fund raisers, non-church institutions doing Christian work, the “located preacher” or pastor-led church, and instrumental music, just to name a few.

Within a few decades, the Restoration Movement blew apart at Sand Creek as a result of this intolerance. Since that time, the movement has suffered division after division over some of the most arcane differences imaginable — whether to have a kitchen in the church building; whether to eat in the building; pre-millennialism /post-millennialism / amillennialism; use of the mass media; campus ministries; missionary societies; military service; voting; holding public office; using wine in communion; offering communion twice on Sunday; delivering communion to the sick; taking communion with individual cups; breaking your own piece of communion bread or passing already broken pieces; Christian colleges; whether an elder becomes disqualified when his wife dies; whether all of an elder’s children must be Christians; whether an elder becomes disqualified if one of his children leaves the faith; differences over divorce and remarriage… Christians have parted company over differences on all of these topics, and more. Intolerance has become the guiding principle for fellowship in churches of Christ.

Meanwhile, in 21st century America, intolerance is not a very effective way to win the lost — nor to save our children. So the church declines.

Tracing the history of intolerant thought in the Restoration Movement, Jay provides a few rather shocking quotes, including this one from Moses Lard:

For if both of these men be true Christians neither more nor less, evidently there cannot exist between them even a nominal, to say nothing of a real difference…… Consequently they are now, be it supposed, Christians strictly according to the Bible; that is, they mentally accept and in heart hold, as the matter of their faith, precisely and only what the Bible certainly teaches; they do and practice what, and only what, it either expressly or by precedent enjoins; in spirit, temper, and disposition, they are exactly what it requires; and as to names, they wear none save those which it imposes.

It is astonishing to me that learned men would consider such a standard for fellowship. What were they thinking? Surely the apostle Paul did not use that standard when he called the Corinthian church “brothers.” Amazingly, we still find educated leaders in some churches of Christ who teach similarly exclusive views on salvation and fellowship.

But not all churches of Christ hold such views. Many are finding biblical basis to challenge the intolerant conclusions of the past. So there is hope. One by one, people even from the conservative churches are starting to question inconsistencies between the teaching and the practice of the more exclusive conservatives. Going back to the scriptures, some are learning a better way to handle diverse viewpoints, without breaking fellowship.

Let’s not abandon our love for scripture. And let’s not abandon our careful use of scripture. But let’s gain some humility, and let’s learn to admit that we might be wrong about a few things. We need to recognize our own need for grace, and therefore to extend grace to others. Let’s accept one another and leave room for God to make us all stand.

Rom 14:4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Today I want to extend my comments about the fellowship dilemma in the conservative churches of Christ.

These churches rely heavily on 2 John 1:9-11 to support their highly restrictive doctrine of fellowship. Let’s take a look at the short book of 2 John to see what the apostle was talking about.

The concluding verses give us some insight into the context in which John wrote the letter:

2Jo 1:12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
2Jo 1:13 The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.

The letter is apparently intended for a particular congregation. John was hoping to visit them soon (vs 12) and preferred to communicate with them face to face. There were many things that John needed to address. But there was only one issue that couldn’t wait for that face-to-face meeting. It was this issue that prompted the short letter.

John began the letter with a cordial greeting (vs 1-3). Then in verses 4-6 he gives a general admonishment to obedience and love. That was undoubtedly his message whenever he communicated with a church, and yet it is not the driving issue that motivated the apostle to write the letter.

The urgent matter he wrote to address appears in verse 7:

2Jo 1:7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
2Jo 1:8 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.
2Jo 1:9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
2Jo 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.
2Jo 1:11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

Here was the serious matter, the one about which John was compelled to write immediately rather than wait for his upcoming visit. There were some deceivers who were spreading a fundamentally false teaching about Jesus. They taught that Jesus did not literally come in the flesh — the emerging Gnostic heresy. There was the very real threat that the Christians in that church could be led astray by this false teaching. As a result, the church leaders who directly received his letter could lose the reward for which they had labored in the church (1 Cor 3:15). John did not mince words. Those who taught this heresy had abandoned the teaching of Christ and did not have God. John instructed the church not to welcome these deceivers nor to accept them into their homes. No Christian should offer support nor assistance to the deceivers. Their teaching must be stopped.

In conclusion, John pointed out that there were many other things he needed to teach them, but that would have to wait. He was not writing to communicate about those other topics. The purpose of the letter was more specific than that.

This short letter was not instructing the church to start withdrawing fellowship over any and every doctrinal issue. It was addressing a single urgent doctrinal issue. Those who use verse 9 to justify withdrawing fellowship over other matters are going beyond what is written. By their own standard, they would be out of fellowship, because they are teaching this passage in error. They promote division from people whom God has accepted. In doing so the violate direct commands of God because of their error– commands for unity and against divisiveness.

May God give us all greater insight into His will, and may He heal our divisions.

Our congregation’s theme for 2009 is “Jesus is Lord!”

A few weeks ago I blogged about “Living for God.” The challenge facing Christians today is actually to live for God, and not to be consumed by worldly pursuits. Most of us spend our time, our energy, and our money on ourselves, for our own convenience and comfort. We are living for ourselves and not for God. So both husband and wife work outside the home to bring in as much money as possible, which is then spent to acquire the highest lifestyle possible — the biggest house, the fanciest car, the most impressive collection of stuff, and whatever else we think might fill the void of meaning in our lives. Many of us are chasing the wind, not living for God.

The Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, admonished us to live differently:

2Co 5:14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
2Co 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

There is a wide gap between the life we’ve been called to live and our present reality. What should church leaders do about that?

In our congregation, we’re beginning by teaching the biblical standard to the church. A few weeks ago I taught a midweek men’s class covering the material from the Living for God post. This weekend we will meet with our deacons and family group leaders to talk specifically about the biblical model for the family, and about the plague of materialism that is consuming us. We’ll be calling on them to develop deep convictions and to start making changes toward the biblical model. By doing this they will be setting an example, and earning the right to call others in the church to make room in their lives for serving God.

In Titus 2, Paul instructed Titus what must be taught to the church. That teaching included that women should be busy at home (verse 5.) And he closed the chapter by telling Titus to teach these things, and to encourage and rebuke with all authority. He was instructed not only to teach these things, but also to expect the members to obey the teaching.

Most of our families need to downscale their lifestyles so that wives don’t have to work outside the home. The two biggest obstacles to doing that are a lack of conviction on the subject, and a supersized house payment. We are beginning by addressing the conviction. Addressing the house payment problem may be harder. Today’s housing market is not an ideal environment for downsizing the house. But with the right convictions, I think people will be able to find a way.

For many, the first step toward downsizing our lives will be to get out of debt. We will be starting up our second session of Dave Ramsey’s FPU classes in a few weeks.

If we are going to live out our good confessions, we will have to make room in our lives. Living for God requires time, energy, and money. We have to restrain ourselves from consuming everything ourselves, so we will have something left to share with others.

First of all we have to make room for God in our hearts. There is not enough room in our hearts to love our material world and also to love God (1 John 2:15) Do we really love God more than we love the things that are currently preoccupying us? If so, we will make the necessary changes. That’s what it means for Jesus to be Lord.